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Education

The first batch of e-textbooks, covering seven primary and junior secondary education subjects, successfully completed the quality assurance process under Phase One of the e-Textbook Market Development Scheme and was included in the Recommended e-Textbook List released in May 2014 for school use in the 2014-15 school year. The e-textbooks developed under Phase Two (covering more subjects) are expected to be available for school use in the 2015-16 and 2016-17 school years.

Post-secondary Education

Overview

Hong Kong has 19 local degree-awarding post-secondary education institutions, eight of which are funded by the public through the University Grants Committee (UGC). The other 11 are the publicly-funded Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA) and the self-financing Caritas Institute of Higher Education, Centennial College, Chu Hai College of Higher Education, Hang Seng Management College, HKCT Institute of Higher Education, Hong Kong Nang Yan College of Higher Education, Hong Kong Shue Yan University, Open University of Hong Kong, Tung Wah College and the Vocational Training Council's (VTC's) Technological and Higher Education. Institute of Hong Kong. Together with providers offering locally-accredited sub-degree programmes, there are around 30 post-secondary institutions in Hong Kong.

In the 2013-14 academic year, around 15,160 publicly-funded first-year-first-degree intake places were provided by the UGC-funded institutions and the HKAPA and about 7,000 places in the self-financing undergraduate programmes. In addition, the UGC-funded institutions and the self-financing degree-awarding institutions provided around 4,000 senior year undergraduate places and 7,600 top-up degree places respectively for sub-degree holders and students with other qualifications. At the sub-degree level, there were around 30,100 and 9,800 intake places respectively for self-financing and publicly-funded sub-degree programmes for the 2013-14 academic year.

Increasing Post-secondary Education Opportunities

The government promotes the sustainable development of the self-financing post-secondary sector through a basket of support measures, including providing land and premises at nominal premium and rent, interest-free start-up loans, the $3.52 billion Self-financing Post-secondary Education Fund, student finance and quality assurance subsidies.

As at the end of 2014, around $7 billion of start-up loans to post-secondary institutions out of the total $9 billion commitment had been approved. In the 2013-14 academic year, $67.3 million in scholarships were awarded from the Self-financing Post-secondary Education Fund to 3,545 recipients and grants totalling more than $22 million were approved for 11 projects under the Quality Enhancement Support Scheme.

The number of publicly-funded senior year undergraduate places available at UGC-funded institutions for those with sub-degree qualifications to enter in the third year will be increased by 1,000 over the period from 2015-16 to 2018-19. This will offer more opportunities for sub- degree holders to obtain publicly-funded degree education and foster a flexible multiple-entry post-secondary education framework.

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